ship ready?"

"The ship shall be ready, Eperitus, and though I love thee well, I say
this, that I would it rode the waves which roll around the shores of
Khem and thou wert with it, and with thee she who is called the Hathor,
that Goddess whom thou desirest."

X

THE OATH OF THE WANDERER

That night the Wanderer saw not Meriamun, but on the morrow she sent
a messenger to him, bidding him to her feast that night. He had little
heart to go, but a Queen's courtesy is a command, and he went at
sundown. Rei also went to the feast, and as he went, meeting the
Wanderer in the ante-chamber, he whispered to him that all things were
made ready, that a good ship waited him in the harbour, the very ship
that he had captured from the Sidonians, and that he, Rei, would be with
him by the pylon gate of the temple one hour before midnight.

Presently, as he whispered, the doors were flung wide and Meriamun the
Queen passed in, followed by eunuchs and waiting-women. She was royally
arrayed, her face was pale and cold, but her great eyes glowed in it.
Low the Wanderer bowed before her. She bent her head in answer, then
gave him her hand, and he led her to the feast. They sat there side by
side, but the Queen spoke little, and that little of Pharaoh and the
host of the Apura, from whom no tidings came.

When at length the feast was done, Meriamun bade the Wanderer to her
private chamber, and thither he went for awhile, though sorely against
his will. But Rei came not in with them, and thus he was left alone with
the Queen, for she dismissed the waiting ladies.

When they had gone there was silence for a space, but ever the Wanderer
felt the eyes of Meriamun watching him as though they would read his
heart.

"I am weary," she said, at length. "Tell me of the wanderings, Odysseus
of Ithaca--nay, tell me of the siege of Ilios and of the sinful Helen,
who brought all these woes about. Ay, and tell me how thou didst creep
from the leaguers of the Achaeans, and, wrapped in a beggar's weeds, seek
speech of this evil Helen, now justly slain of the angry Gods."

"Justly slain is she indeed," answered the crafty Wanderer. "An ill
thing is it, truly, that the lives of so many heroes should be lost
because of the beauty of a faithless woman. I had it in my own heart to
slay her when I spoke with her in Troy town, but the Gods held my hand."

"Was it so, indeed?" said the Queen, smiling darkly. "Doubtless if she
yet lived, and thou saw